Extreme weather-created phenomenon, such as hurricanes, typhoons, tornadoes, or the like can often cause damage to building structures. Such storm-related damage frequently occurs when high winds and/or debris carried thereby breaks windows or doors which, of course, makes the structure vulnerable to further damage to the interior thereof. Thus, particularly in geographic areas susceptible to frequent violent weather conditions, it is important to protect the weakest portions of a structure, usually the windows and the doors, with some type of covering.
Most traditionally, home or building owners, if alerted to an oncoming storm, cover the weakest portions of their structures by nailing boards over these portions. However, this “boarding up” procedure is not only time consuming, when time is usually of the essence, but also can disfigure the exterior of the structure upon the frequent installation and removal of the boards. Moreover, storing or maintaining an inventory of the boards can take up a great deal of space which would otherwise be usable for other projects.
As a result, a number of temporarily installable or permanently installed shutters have been developed. However, in general, these devices are expensive, difficult to install or disassemble, and cumbersome to store. For example, some of these shutters consist of rolled-up corrugated material which must be rolled down, either manually or automatically by a motor, and as such, are quite costly. Alternatively, metallic panels such as those made out of aluminum or steel, may be specially designed for each structure opening to be protected, and mounted to the wall of the structure on a special frame. At times, a LEXAN® type of material has been substituted for the metallic portion of the device. However, all of these alternatives are quite expensive, are not aesthetically pleasing, and, particularly in the case of the LEXAN® material, do not weather well.
Other alternatives to these shutter-like devices are fabric-based systems. These systems, while less expensive than their counterparts, are quite large, cumbersome, and difficult to install. Usually, they are attached to an overhang or an eave and must be positioned at a distance in excess of two feet, from the window or door to be protected. They must be specially designed for each such item to be covered, dependent on the nature of the item and its location relative to an overhang or an eave, and they are usually quite large, presenting installation and storage issues
The need exists, therefore, for a system which will not be plagued by these problems of the prior art.